Sebastian Vettel: "For now, lap times aren’t important..."

Jerez de la Frontera, 1 February – This is the first day of testing for Scuderia Ferrari and six other Formula 1 teams here at the Spanish circuit.

This morning, the SF15-T was the first car to take to the track, with Sebastian Vettel making his debut at the wheel of the new car. He completed 9 laps, the quickest in 1.25.764.

System checks were the main items on the programme which was altered mid-morning, to improve the radio communications between team and driver. The decision was therefore taken to bring forward the lunch break, so as to resume the planned programme for the afternoon.

Sebastian Vettel: “Today was a good start. I can’t say more than that, because this is only the beginning. Everything is different, even the philosophy behind the car, when compared to what I was used to. But I immediately felt at ease within the team and the guys gave me a very warm welcome. For now, lap times aren’t important: I did mine on the medium compound, but the comparison has to be made yet again with the Mercedes. They are very quick, let’s just hope they are not quite as fast as last year…”

James Allison: “On the one hand, I’m disappointed we didn’t manage to do more miles, because of problems we encountered with the telemetry. However, on the other, we saw the car make progress with the laps we did run.”

Maurizio Arrivabene: “It seems the SF15-T took on board what was said about it at the launch! Joking apart, this is only the beginning and at this stage, lap times are all relative. We are just getting on with it for now and I’d rather emphasise the work done by the team, who seem to me to be very motivated, which I am very pleased about. I say “well done” to Sebastian, but we have to keep in mind that our rivals, especially Mercedes, must not be underestimated.”